1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns an expansion joint for hot pipes.
It is more particularly concerned with an expansion joint connecting the ends of two pipes adapted to convey a hot fluid, each end having an end flange, the joint including a sleeve comprising a flexible strip straddling the two adjacent ends and attached at its respective edges to a cold flange attached to a nesting device in a retaining arrangement fastened to the corresponding pipe and also including a coupling arrangement coupling the end flange and the corresponding cold flange.
2. Description of the prior art
In a prior art expansion joint of this kind the coupling arrangement is a sleeve fabricated from flat sheetmetal. Because it can flex, the sheetmetal absorbs some thermal deformation due to the temperature difference between the end flange that is hot and the cold flange and to expansion of the pipes themselves. An arrangement of this kind generates high stresses localized in the corners of the flanges and is somewhat unreliable in the case of large pipes conveying fluids at very high temperature.
Expansion joints of this type are required for inlet pipes of heat recovery boilers coupled to the exhaust of a gas turbine, for example, in which application the hot end flange is at a temperature in the order of 600.degree. C. and the cold flange is at a temperature in the order of 200.degree. C., with the result that the differential expansion is considerable. Also, these pipes usually have a large square cross-section, with a side length that can be in the order of 7.5 meters.